The object linking and embedding (OLE) architecture provided by Microsoft Corporation within its Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems is becoming more and more popular every day. The use of the OLE architecture to communicate between tasks within the operating system, however, is still very challenging to most programmers. That is, the learning curve is steep.
In order to facilitate software communication across OLE boundaries, the Microsoft foundation class (MFC) library, provided by Microsoft Corporation with its C++ compiler, provides a set of tools and classes to allow use of OLE. These allow function calls from one OLE object to another, and also provides a data structure, called a VARIANT, for use in passing data between OLE objects. These tools and classes are very general purpose, and nonexperienced users of OLE must spend considerable learning and experimenting with the classes before being able to adequately use OLE.
One problem with the variant structure provided by MFC is that it is difficult for a novice programmer to use.
Another problem with current OLE technology is that access to objects is not controlled, or is only controlled on an ac-hoc basis and is not consistent.
Thus, while OLE technology is very powerful, it is very difficult to learn and use. Therefore, there is need in the art for a method for providing an easy interface which encapsulates most of the complexities involved in communications between OLE objects. The present invention meets these and other needs in the art.